The Sunday Six: The Joys of Asian Roads

1: Bridges Can Be Scary

Thanks to Johnny Vagabond for having the presence of mind to photograph this Cambodian bridge after biking over it. I’ve driven over one of these but was too busy with the palpitations after to even contemplate a photo. You can read his full post here.

2: Unexpected Hold-Ups Are Not Uncommon

‎ It took over 24 hours to move this truck off a road in rural Borneo. Unfortunately, we were on a bus, so had to wait there the whole time. Had we had our trusty bike, we’d have driven through the bush like everyone else.

3: Sometimes, It’s Like Driving on Mars

The soil was so crumbly on this charming rural road in Indonesian Timor that it was in danger of giving way under our bike at any point. Not just the three-foot ruts.

4: Sometimes, It’s Just Vietnam

Walls of scooters, 6-10 people deep, are the default mode of transport in Vietnam, where road rules are, well, limited. Now imagine a roundabout… Or don’t, of course.

5: Don’t Let The Horses Slow You Down!

Trying to overtake a lorry that was overtaking one of these horsecarts was one of the highlights of driving in Lombok, Indonesia. They come out of nowhere at a glacial pace, but the horses are, at least, unscarable.

6: Look! They’re Working On It!

This is the major road artery of Timor Leste (East Timor), connecting it to Indonesia — basically a freeway, or a motorway. I’m sure it will be lovely when they finish this bit.

What are the *worst* roads you’ve ever driven? Drop me a comment and let me know. If you’ve got any pics, do share: if I get enough I’ll do a follow-up post.

I wish I had a photo of the one single “highway” I rode from the North to the South of Laos but that was from before digital cameras! Just imagine that Timor road for miles and miles and miles of gutted red dirt. I don’t think a single road besides in Vientiane was paved at that time. Sometimes you just had to get off the scooter and walk it like a pushbike! I have a distinct impression of Laos N to S being straight downhill but I may have just built that up in my imagination now by only remembering the terrifying bits.

Do they put sticks in their potholes in Mongolia? I’d hoped to get a shot of the classic 4-foot deep pothole with a stick and a bit of cloth on it, but normally when you’ve just missed one of those you don’t have the presence of mind to get a photo. I’d love to visit Mongolia, I have to say…

That bridge is lethal looking! Our scariest was rural Cambodia – a small backroad in Battambang in a tuk tuk just after it rained. They’d been doing work to the dirt road and had piled dirt up all along the middle just before a ridiculously heavy downpour. Which essentially meant the road was not only mush of thick red dirt, each side had giant potholes and a 30+ degree lean on it. Not the ideal conditions for a tuk tuk with 4 adults and 2 kids. We all ended up getting out and walking/pushing after it almost tipped over for the third time.

We had to get out and help push a 4WD drive up a road in Sulawesi, which was kind of scary. Well, not so much push, as pull: all tug on a rope and then hope you didn’t get run over when the thing got momentum. Damn! I think I had a shot of that, as well… Maybe one for the round-up? I’m always amazed by what tuk-tuks will go down (and up). The sheer power of a 100cc scooter engine…

We were hiking around Sapa and a construction crew was working on a dirt road on the side of a mountain doing some blasting. There was no safety considerations what so ever. We had to stop while they let off a charge and boulders started to fly down the mountainside. Looking over we noticed there were children playing at the bottom of the mountain! We yelled at the top of our lungs but they didn’t even look our way. Luckily the boulders widely missed them. Crazy!

It’s funny, isn’t it? Perceptions of safety and risk are so different in Asia. Bet half the crew weren’t even wearing helmets, either. Driving past bulldozers excavating the mountainside always makes me feel uneasy. So god knows what I’d do about a full blasting crew.

After more than a year of riding a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh City, I discovered there WERE road rules. And a speed limit. But after telling me there were road rules, I was then told they were “just a suggestion”.

Wow, great idea for an interesting posts and awesome photos to go with it. I lived in Democratic Republic of Congo near the Central African Republic for a few years and those were the the worst roads I’ve ever seen. I think it took us about 4 hours to drive 40 kilometers.

Thanks. It wasn’t so bad, waiting. It was waking up in the morning and realising that we were still in the same place we’d fallen asleep in the night before and going to be there all day that was bad. But there was a little village shop so we had access to water and some food — there was so much traffic queued and so many hungry people waiting that people were coming in from villages down the road (past the blockage) bringing cooked food for sale.

We had some interesting moments biking the Khammuan Loop in Laos during the rainy season just now, actually… We were on Koh Chang in the dry, so I don’t remember the road as being that bad — but I can imagine the wet being pretty bad…

There was a time that coming upon any one of those would give a rise to the blood pressure and get me ticked off. Now the only time that happens is when I am not traveling. When I am on the road I take it all in stride and count it as part of the trip.